I remember when my children were young and we counted every single cent of our money and hubby would do 'extra' work to get us by. We had four boys between us, a mortgage and one income. Money was tight and yet somehow we always managed to get by.
That's not to say there weren't days when a simple thing like a prescription for antibiotics for one of my boys had me in tears and wondering where I could pull money from to pay for it.
These days we have two incomes, more money and still we are not well off. I still hate budgeting. Numbers, maths, spending ugh! Now if budgeting could be done in words and sentences then I'd be wealthy and budgeting like a star.
My boys are not the best budgeters either, okay seriously, they got their sucky budgeting skills from me. The oldest couldn't save a cent to help himself and owes way too much money (to us and his father), the middle son is better but still spends money on crap. He does however have money in the bank (only because he doesn't get it all each week and is reasonably happy 99% of the time for us to maintain it) Youngest is the best but still has splurges, he's at least happy to work to earn extra for the things he wants.
Me, I like clothes and books. Hubby, he likes any sort of machinery or tool and is quite partial to beer. We gave up smoking almost 12 months ago, we should have a swag more money - we don't. We also like big cook ups of vast amounts of food with friends and family - I think it's my hubby's ethnic blood. His family lurve to feed people, I think it's a sign of honour. But then so do mine and we're not ethnic, so, so much for that theory.
Anyway as a rule, I don't visit financial web sites or blogs. To me anything to do with numbers is akin to chinese water torture. Being an accountant or financial advisor must be the worst job in the world - are you getting that I really don't like numbers yet?
But......(there's always a but) I found this website yesterday and I got just a little bit excited. A personal financial blog (kinda) and it had lots of useful tips and articles and ideas - and yay, very few numbers. It was even interesting to read, pause here for a moment of significant realisation that blogs about budgeting can be interesting..
It's worth having a peek at and I'm planning on following some of the advice and ideas I discovered. I think I might even make subliminal tapes to play the messages to my children in their sleep. That way they'll be wealthy when I'm old and decrepit and they can repay the thousands that they surely owe us.
In all honesty, I'm not endeavouring to be rich in wealth because based on this reality check below, I already am. I'm also rich in love and support and family which out weighs any cash in our bank account. At the same time it can't hurt to budget and have financial goals just as I have life goals. After all, it's about balance and being the best me I can be.
If you're really good at the money thing, I'd rather not know, but if you suck at budgeting like me, I'd love to hear your comments.
Cheers, Fi
We were awful about spending money, often spending more than we had, thus credit card debt. Back in 2008 when the economy was really starting to fall apart here, we realized we needed to be more realistic on how we spent money so we cut back on this and that (not much but a start) and stopped charging and starting paying back a too high credit card bill. Then in 2011 we made a major life change in hubby quit his nice paying job so we could move closer to his aging parents; we moved into their house (they were in assisted living) so we didn't have rent but we still had the usual expenses, electricity, water, food, etc. We had to majorly cut back since I was the only one bringing home a pay check which was far less than hubby had made previously. We stopped eating out, watched the sales papers for bargains at the stores, etc. We also are very close (October) to being entirely debt free when we pay the car off; the credit card was slated to be paid off this December, but we had to stop paying as much as we wanted when we went to this new lifestyle but after hubby's parents passed and he got some of their estate, we paid it off. I never want to be in debt again; a car payment okay, but never credit card debt. Its like our pastor said at church when talking about money; credit card/consumer debt is basically slavery; we are indebted to someone else (banks, credit card companies, etc). Sadly, our son developed some of our spending habits, we are trying to help him be away to save for a rainy day and pay his debts in a timely manner. Another pastor of ours had a great thought for money, he got it from another source. Of every 10 dollars earned, people should save a dollar of it, give a dollar of it to some type of charity, and learn to live on the other eight. Its good advice!
ReplyDeletebut I still have days when I really suck at budgeting. I rarely buy things for myself but I'm a generous person, I like to give to others. Its a fine balance to still give and still meet one's own needs.
betty
Any debt is a nasty thing Betty and well done to you guys for nearly having yours all out of the way.
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